BALTIC ADVENTURE – Augustas Serapinas

SEASON III BALTIC ADVENTURE
October 3, 2023 – June 30, 2024

For its Season III, FOROF presented BALTIC ADVENTURE, a site-specific project by Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas, curated by Ilaria Gianni and realized with the support of the Lithuanian Embassy. The installation, inaugurated on October 3, 2023 and open until June 30, 2024, envisions a future landscape devastated by global warming, turning the underground Basilica Ulpia into a powerful narrative on environmental fragility.

Suggested photo: general view of the installation with Mudmen inside the Basilica Ulpia.

Mudmen: presences between past and future

At the core of the project lies Mudmen, figures made of mud and straw that evoke snowmen, first conceived in 2020 when an unusually warm winter in Riga prevented the creation of traditional snow figures. This replacement of snow with mud became a reflection on climate change, here recontextualized in the archaeological spaces as a warning of a dystopian future that appears increasingly near.

Suggested photo: close-up of a Mudman illuminated among the ancient marble floors.

Dialogue with Rome’s history

Serapinas conceived the installation for the apse of the Basilica Ulpia, once a gathering place for civic assemblies in ancient Rome. Here, the mud and straw figures act as sentinels of our time, restoring the Forum as a site of public debate and collective awareness. As noted by Giovanna Caruso Fendi, founder of FOROF, the artist’s choice reactivates the deepest meaning of the site, bringing it back to its role as a space for pressing contemporary issues.

Suggested photo: detail of the apse with Mudmen and archaeological remains.

Works from the Baltic

The exhibition also includes other works such as Part of the House from Rūdninkai (2023) and Part of the House from Skirgiškės (2023), composed of ruins of wooden houses from the Baltic countries, and Window Glasses from Jonas house (2023), created by fusing windows from an old Lithuanian wooden house together with pigments made from the same structure. These fragments of material memory, like the Mudmen, connect past and future, nature and culture.

Suggested photo: view of the wooden materials and fused glass windows.

A season of activations

BALTIC ADVENTURE was accompanied by five Episodes, conceived by Ilaria Gianni as live activations of the exhibition: participatory workshops, theatrical and musical performances, and a final workshop for children. Each event, followed by a food and wine experience curated by Rimessa Roscioli, expanded the reflections raised by the artist and transformed FOROF into a space of shared experiences.

Suggested photo: final group photo during one of the Episodes, with audience and artists together.

With the support of APalazzo Gallery and under the patronage of the Lithuanian Embassy.